September 13, 2011

See? This is the kind of thing I have to contend with. Web writers who don't like me or don't like whatever side of politics they think I represent will comb through the comments to find whatever sounds worst and then smear me and the entire comments community here. As the discussion turns to affirmative action today, people who would like to discredit or silence me are going to be especially active looking for comments. What can be done? 1. Think about what you are writing and how it will look to outsiders, 2. Don't feed the troll, 3. Perceive the Moby.

I tend to remember the advise I gave my oldest, now in college, about posting things online: always assume your grandmother is reading them. Aside from that, I usually give little or no thought to what an "outsider" might think about what I write. The only exception to that being that when I write something purposefully humorous, I hope other will think so as well.

As far as this whole "out-racist" thing, it's just more proof, along with manpris (male capris), that there are far too many among us that never really figured out what growing up means.

Professor, you're already doing (1) and (2) quite well. I hope this garbage doesn't rise to the point that it can actually trouble you, but I don't think it will. Your blog is the best example of argumentative merit out there.

Anyway, call out your army if need be! I'll be there with a sign, truly.

I care about what commenters here say, and I can't even read through Carol Herman's rants

I usually get to the forth line before moving on, so I'm no expert, but...maybe...it's the most vile, racist slop on the blog if you read Carol's every other word or something. Outside some code only liberals can figure out, I don't see it.

God forbid someone make any unfair and deprecatory generalizations like: "On the plus side, a national profile of Soglin as a “conservative” Madison mayor makes Madison seem that much more sane compared to the gun-toting, teacher-bashing sections of our state.

Thanks very much for the slandering those of us who sometimes reside in those insane hinterlands.

And that's from the blogger directly, not a random commenter/moby.

Why would you ever visit that predictably sad page, Ann? A feed-hit on your name probably?

After how many years of racial preference in admissions will the damages of historical prejudice against racial minorities be judged compensated? What is the definition of success in affirmative action programs? When can we return to an ordered meritocracy based on a clear standard of qualifications for admission to elite universities?

Not that I really care about UW-M. My three children attended competitive smaller private colleges,qualified for Merit Aid, received excellent educations, graduated with honors and have good jobs.

One, a Naional Merit semi-finalist, was actually turned down at several elites because her race adjustment disqualified her for admission. Thankfully her attitude was, "Well then they just won't have my specialness in their community."

The comment cited as "racist" is only racist if you are a racist... possibly.

Obviously, a lot of the fun of the comments here involves playing and being sarcastic and making allusions. Outsiders who want to hurt me will not try to get anything that requires any level of penetration.

It would also hurt this blog if the commenters played it too safe and were boringly circumspect. I don't want that to happen, and I have already endured the risks of maintaining this freewheeling speech forum.

The comments here are extremely important to me, much more important than what my antagonists are able to say about me. I have been dealing with that kind of thing for 7 years and I long ago became to tough to let them push me back.

I really would not worry over this, there are always gonna be nutty commenters, ditto blogs, lol. The real problem that much of the left has is, their policy positions cant be argued on policy grounds so that leaves personal attacks as their only weapon. What do they teach in law school? When you have the law on your side, argue the law.When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts.

I have to agree with Pogo and lyssa. Once you realize the man's offensive example is Carol_Herman you just have to laugh. For his next trick, Reichers can complain about sophomoric vulgarities on Althouse and link to J.

After how many years of racial preference in admissions will the damages of historical prejudice against racial minorities be judged compensated? What is the definition of success in affirmative action programs?

Just sit down and shut up, and they'll tell you when enough is enough.

And don't you dare try to inject sexual mores or family structure into the mix because that is racist!

The affirmative action folks are busily bailing water out as fast as they can, and they don't need any naysayers to point out that lack of fathers in some communities is a gaping hole flooding the boat far faster than can be bailed.

Just never you mind - shut up and keep from obviously being the heartless racist they already know you are.

From going through the links it appears the comment that set off the critic (the one that called you racist) is Carol Herman asking when the first pregnancy would happen at that school. Carol babbles nonsense most of the time, but I can't say that particular comment was racist.

To point out the obvious, Carol Herman's comment was not about race. She was commenting about the planned exclusion of females, and the eventual numerically equal admission of boys and girls, but with segregation of the sexes, which won the eventual approval of the ACLU.

Althouse wrote: Originally, Madison Prep was to be an all-boys charter school — with the Madison school district is pouring $10.5 million into this lavish experiment. After hearing from the ACLU, there will be equal numbers of boys and girls, albeit with boys and girls in separate classrooms.

Ann, anyone from another blog who tries to paint you with the brush of (false) racism based on someone else's comments here is at best intellectually dishonest and at worst a feculent weasel. And that's probably unfair both to weasels and feces.

The left's standard template with respect to conservatives: racist bigots, homophobes, sexist neanderthals,... whatever, several more elements can be added. They look for anything they can use to support the template.

Btw, has anyone read UW's latest alumni mag? The one featuring the "working class" Italian mafia guy, 50, who escaped from Melrose Park and then went back to the old neighborhood to spend a day with his non-educated working-class buds?

It's a hoot. Especially the part about him recounting a beating in his past by some blacks, with "I had no business being in that neighborhood." He acknowledges his racist past, and is absolved by the good life now. Then there's the black music professor, also from Chicago, who teaches anti-racism along with music in his class.

Really, if you have access, read a few stories in that magazine. It's like, even when they try to be working-class inclusive, they preach. Diversity only goes so far it seems, and you MUST fit into the liberal's "radical" box...

Peter V. Bella's advice is spot on for this. This is a nonsense attack on you. Of course in the witch hunt atmosphere of Madison, Wisconsin now a days, you have to be careful about even the perception of racism.

Argument Ad Hominem is abundant on this blog, as folks shout labels at each other, but racist, usually not, and I agree with Althouse that this open forum is for a good thing. I admit I do find it frustrating, at times, to see what is over-looked-- usually a counter opinion to the view point shaped by Althouse's framing of current issue-- but it is her and Meade's blog and folks, like me can suggest a counter-point.

Years ago, I got an account on DemocraticUnderground.com. It's a good site if you want to sample leftist American thinking. I posted a comment on a hot thread about George W. Bush, and it caused a ruckus, because some people there agreed with my comments (roughly, he was not Satan). Hours into the discussion, the site banned me because I had violated a rule: supporting Bush. That was not allowed, so I was shut up.

Of course, I could have gone back. But what would be the point? Echo chambers encapsulate their own antidotes.

There already was a spin-off, one Herman Carol. He didn't last one season, though, and apparently got cancelled early.

I have nothing against CH in particular, but regardless of the fact that I'm a Monty Python nerd, stream of consciousness doesn't work for me in a airquote-serious-unairquote discussion. I never did understand the Instapundit cite.

I wonder if 2012 defeat will finally put a chill into this Robespierrite reign of insanity-- I'm thinking of two reigns actually, the one centered in Madison, and the Cult of Diversity on the other, at least as abetted out of Washington, DC.

The Wisconsin progs have taken hard maulings at the polls, but the reality principle hasn't kicked in.

Official Washington, and the MSM, still kow-tow to the Cult of Diversity.

But it'd be swell for the federal bureaucracy to shed a few Equal Opportunity Office pounds. It'd also be nice to publicly hold populations in the grip of underclass pathologies to some modicum of good bourgeois decency.

Let me give a shot at the racism stuff. I propose a government backed system where we make miniorities as dependent as possible on the government, build government subsidized ghettos, brainwash minorities into thinking they can't get by without government assistance. They need us for food, health care, educational advancement, etc. You get the picture.

In the mean time, we fly around in jets, ride in limos and live in gated communities while blaming the plight of minorities on people like ourselves, which we somehow also claim not to be.

Additionally, to show our great conern regarding civil rights, we sue a school so that students can wear "I love boobies" bracelets.

Who knows; who cares? There is a world full of poo flinging monkeys out there.

I think that famous Texas philosopher Kinky Friedman (who once fronted a band called The Texas Jewboys---if that's not an anti-Semitic statement--but he said it, and he named it) had it best. In his song Wildman of Borneo he writes "They come to see what they want to see, but they never come to know".

It's not quite as succinct as the two word history of the world: "Jesus wept".

But it is an accurate statement of the condition of the partisans on the left--and on the far right.

So diddly squat lefties--y'all can scream "racist, racist, racist" as much as you want--but you can't make it so.

I guess it's my interest in abnormal psychology, but I find Carol Herman's post slightly intriguing. I rarely read them, but she may hold the record for associating the greatest number of disconnected thoughts with a single concept.

My comment did it? When you posted the "solution" to the new charter school, that was going to be composed, at first, only of males ... was to add an equal number of females ... to be in compliance with funding laws

... And, I guess I should have added the scarcasm tag, alert, huh?

Because I asked: "When would the first pregancy occur?"

As if you didn't know why boys and girls were kept in separate classes. Why Harvard was once all male. And, the "sister colleges" held all the females. (And, where women went to school "looking for husbands.")

Yes. There were lots of shotgun marriages back in those days.

I have no idea if this new charter school is going to be successful, or not.

Every so often you see an out and out bigoted statement here. My guess is that it is a comment posted by Mr. Riehers under an assumed name.... Unless we see a pointed disavowal of that statement by Mr. Riehers, we should all assume that bigoted statements are his works.....It is very easy to quote Carol Herman out of context. Finding the context: that's the challenge.

What if the truth is "racist"? For example, that the illegitimacy rate among blacks is much higher than other races, and black teens routinely become pregnant? That's the truth. If it's "racist" to point out the truth, then just maybe it isn't always wrong to be racist.

A. V. Club must be the dullest arts pub on the web or in print. Linking to them is an act of charity.

Btw, has The Onion published anything funny this year? Seems like its writers are suffering from Gregory's Disease; named after the performer who was called a comedian for two decades after he stopped making people laugh.

It's fun to watch people try and defend AA. "Yes, of course the non-racist position is that people with dark skin can't compete." Please, please tell me more, liberals with exquisitely nuanced non-racism...

I will always, always, always stand with that sentiment, no matter how much I can appear to get pissed here and/or by Ann's positions or topics. (Which I think gets blown out of proportion.) Things may get tangled here, but Democracy and free speech ain't pretty. I could use more honesty and even an attempt at fairness - I do think those are sorely lacking here and offline - but, for now, I'm glad for what we've got and salute Ann for providing it. She ain't the most courageous person I know - can even be pretty cowardly and chickenshit depending on the topic - but I still put her over most bloggers when it comes to bravery. Althouse is a definite "good."

I read Carol's comments with wide-eyed wonder, like listening to an especially precocious 5-year old, and do so because, sometimes, I get something useful out of it. (Her disconnected thoughts make me connect things in odd ways I enjoy.) But racism? From Carol? That's a laugh. She and I have been each other's fans, almost, from Day One. Somebody's gonna have to explain how that one works.

There's a subtle racism here - nothing overt, very post-modern, both of the P.C. and anti-black variety - but Carol Herman certainly ain't a purveyor of any of it.

It's funny how, in a society gone mad over race, those least in favor of racism, or willing to play the racial game, regularly get tarred and feathered.

Sixty Grit kept a gun to shoot "blacks." Hardly anybody notices or cares. Carol crosses lines because she doesn't see any, yet she's marked as the racist of the bunch.

Oh, Crack, I've been your fan, too. And, I actually take "rides" on the links you provide.

Racism, alone, makes for a very dull person, in my book. Look at all the things they'd miss out on! (Including jazz.)

You know, I even like to read Cedarford's stuff. He rants his way. So what? It doesn't stab me. It doesn't kill me. I don't agree with his opinions about Israel. But so what?

As to the remark that start it all ... I can't imagine why it needed a sarcasm tag. You were gonna take kids whose hormones were coming along ... And, then you were giong to mix them, together.

Since the school was starting with 60 males. And, they judged themselves "wrong" to do so ... they decided to add an equal number of girl students.

Now if one of them should happen to get sick ...?

You know, I never did hear of a school that set priorities on the number of boys it would accept. I'd bet even in the old days ... when Harvard was all male ... They were more like an accordion, than anything. Some years more students were accepted than others.

Here? When something went "wrong" with the planning ... instead of inviting in "some females" ... the decision was to go whole hog. As if all they're going to be teaching is dancing. And, everyone needed a partner.

Now, can pregnancies occur when girls begin to menstruate? Wouldn't that provide you with your first clue, so that you could say "maybe?" Girls as young as 10 can start.

Off topic. But on menstruation. (I got my "last" among all my friends.) But I had a friend who was as skinny as me, who mom didn't tell her anything. Who went to the beauty parlor to get her hair done.

And, she went to the bathroom. And, came out screaming ... because she was bleeding.

Sixty Grit kept a gun to shoot "blacks." Hardly anybody notices or cares. Carol crosses lines because she doesn't see any, yet she's marked as the racist of the bunch.

Fucking insane.

Carol Herman statementsj (at least the ones linked to here) were not racist. Not in the least. Is she insane? Well of course she is, which is apparent when you read her stuff.

As for Sixty Grit, I do not know what is in his heart of hearts. But he seems to have an issue with blacks in North Carolina. Whether that is crime related or race related, he seems to have linked the two.

How about give you a test on prop209 for starters,AA. The problems at U WI--if they are problems-- are not AA--your typical faulty generalization (and defending klansmen over rationalists and tweekers as a whole -how typical) .Trolls? That would be yr site as a whole.

TY: I prefer to follow the example of one of my personal heroes Augusto Pinochet. They need to be disappeared. Just sayn'

Bookmarked, macho-man perp, along with your vicious smears of Ms Herman--whether I agree wit' her is beside the point. And yr comments with your new racist-mormon boyfriend from Sac. You know who . Hoss Mysterioso with countless s-names

I also enjoy Carol_Herman comments. At least partly because, for many months, I was convinced that Carol_Herman was actually an artificial intelligence bot that was being tested out on this blog. It's an intriguing thought, isn't it: Does Carol_Herman pass the Turing Test?

At a certain point the person who runs a blog has a responsiblity to the people who post there. At a certain point a commenter goes over the line of personal attacks, threats and anti-semitism. At a certain point a blogger has to stop being lazy and has to delete that person from the blog.

I see that you have done this with Mary on another thread. Please note that you have a new one that is just as bad. I don't think you are paying attention. You should. It's bad and is going to get worse.